The Guardian takes the temperature on nefarious uses of tech.

The Guardian has unveiled a new project in partnership with Jam3 and the National Film Board of Canada's Digital Studio that aims to get a sense for how people feel about—and commit—modern technological transgressions. Digital Deadly Sins, which launched Monday, gives a variety of examples of questionable online and tech-related behaviors, from monitoring your kids' activity on Facebook to keeping a secret e-mail account.

The behaviors are divided up among the traditional "seven deadly sins" of lust, sloth, greed, wrath, gluttony, envy, and pride. While not all the sins fit very neatly into every category—"Wikipedia is my library" goes under sloth—some, like "illegal downloading" under greed, are spot-on.

Not only does the project categorize the various actions; it also allows users to vote on whether to "absolve" or "condemn" certain behaviors and say whether they do or don't partake themselves. For instance, one of the "lust" actions is watching porn, which 82 percent of voters feel is acceptable behavior. Of those who absolved it, 82 percent also admitted to doing it, and 36 percent of those who condemned watching porn admitting to doing it themselves, too. Illegally downloading movies had a similar split: 72 percent absolve it, and 81 percent of those admit to doing it. Twenty-eight percent condemn illegally downloading movies, but 34 percent of those who condemn it still do it anyway.

In addition to the votes, each sin has a collection of stories that express some of the subtler sentiments that go with committing the sins. As an anonymous source says of illegal downloading, "I honestly don't feel very guilty… It's one of those things that everybody does, which takes away the stigma… I just feel like digital crime is different in itself."